By Greg Halbleib
Central Catholic is the remaining boys basketball team alive in the area after defeating Deer Creek-Mackinaw 47-46 in the Class 2A Supersectional at University of Illinois Springfield, while Ridgeview fell in the 1A Supersectional at Redbird Arena to Annawan 39-32.
Central Catholic 47, Deer Creek-Mackinaw 46
Central Catholic (25-7) won a nail-biter over Dee-Mack behind 17 points from James Morris, who sealed the win with two free throws with 7.8 seconds left. Neal Scheuermann hit a three-pointer with about two seconds remaining to cut the deficit to one point, but with no time outs remaining for the Chiefs, the Saints didn’t have to inbound the basketball.
Central Catholic led 23-17 at half but the game was tied 28-28 after three quarters.
Levi Scheuermann led the Chiefs (25-6) with 20 points while Neal Scherermann chipped in 17.
The Saints will face Chicago Orr in the second Class 2A semifinal at Carver Arena of the Peoria Civic Center on Friday at 7:15 p.m.
Annawan 39, Ridgeview 32
A defensive affair marked the 1A contest in Normal as Ridgeview led 12-11 after one quarter and 20-17 at halftime, but the Mustangs did not score for the first four and a half minutes of the third quarter and trailed 27-25 after three quarters before falling by seven.
“I think today was just two good defensive teams,” Ridgeview coach Rodney Kellar said of the low-scoring contest. “I thought we battled. I thought our zone did a good job against them. The turnovers, no doubt, down the stretch, we kind of shot ourselves in the foot a bit, and our execution was not as good as it was in the first half.”
Jacob Donaldson led Ridgeview (27-5) with 13 points followed by Justin Myers with eight points and seven rebounds. Annawan (30-3) was led by 10 points from Owen Landwehr and eight points and 11 rebounds from Ben Buresh.
